Bethel College Tightens Creation Statement

Someone I know, Jim Stump, a fellow BioLogos participant, a fine teacher and Christian and thinker, has resigned at Bethel College (IN) because of Bethel’s revision of its statement on human origins. From Christian Post by Ruth Gledhill:

A prominent evangelical philosophy professor has resigned from the Christian Bethel College in Indiana after it espoused creationism in a statement on human origins.

Dr Jim Stump, an award-winning teacher who has worked at Bethel since 1998 and specializes in philosophy of science, said he had resigned of his own choice because he did not wish to remain under the new creationist policy and bring “tension” to the college.

Bethel College is affiliated to the Missionary Church of Fort Wayne, Indiana which has its own roots in Mennonite, Amish and holiness movements from the Anabaptist tradition.

The new “philosophy of origins” policy was adopted by the college trustees last month and includes the statement: “We believe that the first man, Adam, was created by an immediate act of God and not by a process of evolution.” This is an article of the Missionary Church which, until the change in policy, faculty staff did not have to sign up to.